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Getting behind the Masq-uerave

The Bearfoot Bistro, one of the restaurants instrumental to Cornucopia’s international recognition, closes its doors on Whistler’s biggest food and wine festival this year.

There will be no internationally renowned, lavish winemaker dinner and no Masquerave with its infamous painted ladies.

Owner Andre St. Jacques says while the rest of the world is calling to book Masquerave tickets, Whistler wants to wash its hands of the “debaucherous” rave.

Or is it that this bad-boy party just isn’t behaving?

St. Jacques says the Masquerave is cancelled this year because he is unable to obtain the special occasion liquor licence needed to host the party, and therefore he is withdrawing his support from the festival altogether, including his annual winemaker’s dinner.

He hasn’t applied for the licence. He says there is no point; the liquor inspector will not support his application because she is unhappy with past events.

To host an evening event that runs into the early morning hours, St. Jacques must also get an hour-extension approval from Whistler council. He informally asked the mayor to support the event. However, Mayor Ken Melamed wrote an e-mail to St. Jacques saying he would not. The mayor encouraged St. Jacques to present his request to council. St. Jacques did not.

Melamed’s decision was based on a Liquor Control and Licensing Branch report from last year’s event, as well as conversations with staff from the Resort Municipality of Whistler, and Tourism Whistler.

“I think there is potential for an event like the Masquerave; an all-night component is a benefit to Cornucopia, but I think it has to be redefined under new conditions and parameters,” Melamed said.

The Liquor Control and Licensing Branch drew up parameters for last year’s Masquerave. According to spokesperson Cindy Stephenson, many of those stipulations were not adhered to.

“We’ve been concerned with the Masquerave for the last couple of years,” she said. “We approved the licence last year provided it met certain conditions. They were clearly spelled out and a number of those conditions were not met.”

Some of the conditions not adhered to included control of alcohol volumes to prevent over consumption, servers and entertainers needed to wear appropriate clothing while walking through the audience before and after serving, and nude servers or entertainers could not be coated with food or beverages for patron consumption.

“She doesn’t like my party,” St. Jacques said of liquor inspector Holly Glenn, who monitored the event. “When I started the party nine years ago, I was the only party. Now there are more parties than tastings. I threw a party and they may not like it, but nine years ago, I was the only after-party.”

Tourism Whistler is the official operator of Cornucopia and up until this year, the organization was responsible for applying for third-party licences for events such as winemaker dinners and after-parties, including the Masquerave.

Stephenson said liquor agents met with Tourism Whistler officials before and after last year’s Masquerave to review the board’s expectations.

“It can’t be a licensee that applies,” Stephenson said. “It has to be another organization to have a special occasion licence.”

After 11 years, Tourism Whistler has revised this policy and now special occasion licences must be obtained directly by party hosts. Spokesperson Breton Murphy said the decision was based on the recommendation of Glenn.

Further complicating the Masquerave issue is that the RCMP was unhappy with security and the fire department is waiting for the Bearfoot’s cellar to be brought up to fire code, according to Erin Kincaid of the Bearfoot Bistro.

“Our party has always been naughty, so it doesn’t appeal to everybody,” St. Jacques said.

Some people will applaud the Masquerave’s demise. Other high-end clientele are canceling their hotel rooms.

When I first attended the Masquerave, I thought the event was debaucherous — in the negative, furrowed brow sense. The lewd men staring at naked painted ladies while drinking Blue Nun wasn’t what I expected.

But later I caught on to this cheeky French Mad Hatter’s humour and the term debaucherous took on a lighter meaning — more of a smiling and chuckling type of debauchery.

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines the noun debauchery as “Excessive sensual indulgence.”

Debauch as a verb is defined as “Corrupt morally. Cause to indulge in immoral or excessive sexual activity or excessive drinking. Seduce (a woman).”

In one instance, the word has no moral implications, but in the next, a judgmental one.

So what term defines the Masquerave?

Yes a nude ice sculpture guides vodka shots through a tube coming out of the sculpture’s nipple. Yes there have been shadow-box sex shows and pornographic films. And yes there have even been penis-shaped hors d’oeuvre.

But like the Blue Nun wine, these cheeky shock tactics are harmless and meant to entertain and poke fun at the more sensual side of food and wine.

Now you still couldn’t pay me to eat sushi off a naked woman posing as a serving tray at the Masquerave, but I took pictures of it and reputable publications bought them. This was something new and daring, something people wanted to know about and something unique to Whistler.

A local writer once talked about how the former wild, anything can happen Whistler is being railroaded into a polished image of something for everyone — a bland, characterless identity with nothing to define it as unique.

This year Cornucopia loses a unique part of its identity, not the only part, but the most colourful and talked about.

While the Bearfoot’s observation of the Serving It Right rules could be looked at as no worse than many other establishments involved in Cornucopia, there isn’t much to argue about the no food on naked servers/entertainers.

But is eating off naked women and watching pornos what this event is all about?

I return because I am curious to discover what Whistler’s Mad Hatter is going to do next. Exercising the imagination within parameters is never easy, but a test of an artist is to work within them and rise above it with something even the creator couldn’t have predicted.